The latest on local telecom-broadband competition

The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau recently released a detailed report on local broadband and telephone competition as of June 30, 2013.

Broadband

At this point, cable leads in fixed Internet subscriptions:
•    57 million are cable
•    32 million remain DSL
•    7 million are fiber to the premises

When it comes to speeds, the vast majority of cable and fiber subscribers connect at 10 Mbps or more, but only one-quarter of DSL subscribers do. One-third of all subscribers connect below 3 Mbps, which is below the FCC definition of actual broadband.

And, states with defined residential broadband connections vary considerably, from a high of 79 percent in Massachusetts and New Jersey to lows of 37 percent and 27 percent in West Virginia and Mississippi respectively.

Telephone

Subscribers continue to leave traditional copper telephone service at a rapid rate. Over the past 11 years, telecoms’ switched subscribers dropped from 190 million to 90 million – with 33 million of those in the last three years.

In the same last three years, the number of VoIP subscribers increased to 45 million from 29 million. Most of these VoIP customers subscribe to a voice/broadband/TV bundle.

The number of wireless subscribers in 2013 was 306 million, up from 141 million in 2002, and an increase of 27 million or 10 percent over the past three years. Moreover, almost two-thirds of young people have switched to wireless-only telephony.

To read a summary of these findings, click on the FCC news release of the report.

Local Telephone Competition: Status as of June 30, 2013 (FCC Wireline Bureau report, Jun. 2014)

FCC releases new data on internet access services and local telephone competition (FCC news release, Jun. 25, 2014)